Jason Brown threw for 361 yards, Irv Mulligan ran for 109 yards, and Jackson State rolled past South Carolina State 37-7 on Saturday in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge Kickoff season opener at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium.
The win wasn’t the only big news in the debut of T.C. Taylor as coach of the Tigers, as Jackson State was also presented with a million-dollar donation from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Taylor, a former star at Jackson State, made his debut as head coach after replacing Deion Sanders, who left the Tigers in the offseason to take the head coaching job at Colorado.
Mulligan’s 46-yard run got the Tigers on the scoreboard in their first possession and Brown added a 35-yard touchdown pass to Jency Riley, leading Jackson State to a 17-0 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Brown added touchdown passes of 21 yards to DJ Stevens and 44 yards to Andre Hunt.
Gerardo Baeza added field goals of 31, 27 and 38 yards for the Tigers.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
South Carolina State's score came on an 18-yard pass from Corey Fields Jr. to KeShawn Toney with 22 seconds left in the game.
Fields completed 7 of 20 passes for 59 yards and the Bulldogs were held to 201 yards of total offense.
Jackson State had 499 yards of offense, with Brown going 26-of-33 passing for 361 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
South Carolina State coach Buddy Pough announced earlier in the week that this would be his final season after leading the Bulldogs for 22 years.
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